Counterintuitively relative to many classic intellectual property (IP) strategies, experimentation and recombination can sometimes grow the value of IP. This is a core dynamic of open source movements

Crypto’s success at attracting public development is similarly due to its general endorsement of open source, and “remix culture,” which is especially true for some NFT communities.

By issuing digital works through the “Creative Commons Zero” (“cc0”) license – a rights-waiving tool released by the Creative Commons nonprofit organization in 2009 – creators can knowingly opt for “no rights reserved.”

Why are so many NFT creators going down the “no rights” path? 

One reason can be simply stated as doing it “for the culture” – promoting extensions of the original project, to bring out a more vibrant and engaged community. This can especially make sense in the context of crypto, where open sharing, and finding and building community, is part of the core philosophy for many.

as new derivatives are created and shared, attention can flow back towards the original, strengthening its place in the collective consciousness. This in turn may inspire even more interpretations, resulting in a flywheel effect whereby each additional derivative can add to the original’s value – akin to platform network effects, whereby platforms become more valuable to users as more users join them.

The derivative borrows some brand awareness from the source project; then, as people become independently aware of the derivative, that can drive new interest in the original.

As people (and companies) continued to create world-class open source software, Linux’s value proposition strengthened, ultimately leading to explosive growth and further innovation across the industry. According to market analyst Truelist, today Linux accounts for over 96.3% of the top 1 million web servers, as well as 85% of smartphones.

decentralized systems from open source to crypto are about trust and coordination among strangers, so enabling cooperative opportunities is critical.

the dynamics of this cooperation work particularly well in the context of NFTs because giving people ownership over their digital assets enables them to internalize the results of the co-creation through the value that accrues to their assets and contributions

for these applications to reach a Linux-like potential, more supporting infrastructure services need to be created and readily available so people can take maximum advantage of the remixing opportunities cc0 creates.

Composability is key to growth. With these digital assets built on public standards atop interoperable infrastructure, it’s easy for users to plug their assets into a variety of different platforms.

Because cc0 NFT projects typically earn ongoing royalties from secondary sales, third-party expansions and derivatives can become sources of revenue by driving increased demand for the original cc0 assets.

As Robbie Broome recently explained (in the context of his cc0 project A Common Place), “By giving up my IP to cc0 rather than ‘protecting’ it, it avoids bad rehashes down the line. If, for example, UrbanOutfitters wanted to put my design on a tee, instead of hiring someone on their team to design something that looks like it, they can just use the actual work.”

Sometimes, adopting cc0 can effectively turn competition into cooperation.

while cc0 has some superficial similarity to the strategy of allowing NFT owners specifically to commercialize the intellectual property associated with the NFTs they hold – à la Bored Ape Yacht Club – there is a crucial difference: cc0 holders don’t have the right to exclude others from using the same IP.